Block legislative attack on public schools

Garrett Vickrey, For the Express-News

Published
4:33 pm CDT, Friday, May 8, 2015

Legislation attacking neighborhood and community schools and the dedicated educators who nurture and instruct our children undermines the foundations of one of the great institutions of our state and puts the future of Texas children at risk. less

Legislation attacking neighborhood and community schools and the dedicated educators who nurture and instruct our children undermines the foundations of one of the great institutions of our state and puts the ... more

Photo: Robin Jerstad /For The Express-News

Photo: Robin Jerstad /For The Express-News

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Legislation attacking neighborhood and community schools and the dedicated educators who nurture and instruct our children undermines the foundations of one of the great institutions of our state and puts the future of Texas children at risk. less

Legislation attacking neighborhood and community schools and the dedicated educators who nurture and instruct our children undermines the foundations of one of the great institutions of our state and puts the ... more

Photo: Robin Jerstad /For The Express-News

Block legislative attack on public schools

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As parents of three children younger than 5, our house is a constant circus. It’s hard to take a step in our house without crushing a sippy cup.

Last week, we took this circus on the road all the way to the Texas Capitol. We walked our 2-month-old daughter up and down the halls of the Capitol for 10 hours as we waited to testify. Our 3-year-old daughter turned the Capitol benches and chairs into her own personal jungle gym. Our oldest daughter begged to talk on the microphone. Maybe she is considering a career in politics.

We went to Austin to testify against a bill before the House Education Committee that proposed grading schools A-F. We went because we believe this bill (SB6) would further stigmatize poor schools, and would impoverish these schools more than they already are.

This bill is disrespectful of the investment our teachers make in kids in schools everyday in Texas. Somehow, many of our duly elected legislators seem to be under the impression that public school teachers and administrators are not worth our support.

When Pastors for Texas Children asked us to go to Austin to testify against SB6, we loaded up our kids and went because this is their future at stake.

We have read the legislation attacking neighborhood and community schools and the dedicated educators who nurture and instruct our children. We have heard our state senator railing against public education calling it a “monstrosity.” The legislation and the rhetoric undermines the foundations of one of the great institutions of our state and puts the future of Texas children at risk.

The Texas Senate passed SB-4 recently, providing tuition tax credits to donors giving scholarships to private schools. These are plainly private school vouchers which do not effectively empower parents. They empower private schools.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s hand-picked advisory board issued a letter calling public school classrooms “a Godless environment.” On the very day my wife and I, two Christian ministers, traveled to the House to testify on behalf of our public schools, the second most powerful person in Texas government was advised by his chosen friends that they are “Godless.”

This is deeply offensive.

From my vantage point at the pulpit at Woodland Baptist Church, there are many in our pews who have given their lives to dedicated service of neighborhood and community schools. I am certain that the faithful teachers I serve in my congregation take God with them as they go about their work each day.

Calling our classrooms “a Godless environment” is bad theology. God is everywhere. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:38: “I am convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.”

The God of the Universe is surely present among “the least of these,” our precious children, and those that care for them so compassionately all day long.

Pickpocketing public coffers while simultaneously attacking public schools seems to us poor stewardship of tax dollars and inadequate vision for the future of our state.

Still, in the House Education Committee hearing we saw dedicated civil servants seeking to do their best for the children of Texas.

We have hope that the Texas House will stand up for the public education system that its constituents rely upon. The House Education Committee asked tough questions about SB-6. Members wrestled with the implications of what this could mean for children across our state. We are glad our House members know better than our Senate. We hope they get it right.

Our oldest daughter will start kindergarten this coming fall at our neighborhood school. It is our hope that she will remember the day she stood by her mother in front of a group of state representatives in Austin to stand up for her school. We believe her voice and the voice of millions of children across this state matter.

And we hope that by putting our children in front of this committee, our policymakers will remember the millions of Texas children who could not make this trip. We hope that these representatives will see in them an image of the God who created them, and wills that each of them are entitled to, as our Texas Constitution states, “a general diffusion of knowledge essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people.”

The Rev. Garrett Vickrey is senior pastor of the Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio. Vickrey and his wife Cameron are leaders in Pastors for Texas Children.